Note: dated 28 III 1910

ARCHIVAL REFERENCE.
The letters of V l a d i m i r  I l y i c h  printed below—No. 1 to Rosa Luxemburg, Nos. 2 and 3 to Leo Tyszko and No. 4 to Yu. Karsky-Marchlewski—are written in Vladimir Ilyich's own hand. Letters Nos. 1 and 2 are on postal paper of ordinary medium format, letter No. 3 is a secret letter, and letter No. 4 is on a sheet (2 archival sheets) of postal paper in small format, with an attachment to it on two quarter-sheets of ordinary white writing paper. The address on the secret letter (Letter No. 3) has been carefully erased. Only two words remain: "Allemagne" and "Berlin." The return address reads: "Oulianov, Paris. Rue Marie Rose No. 4-". The postage stamps showing date of sending and receipt have also been erased. The stamps on the letter are French.

PREFACE.

The letters of V. I. L e n i n  printed here to Rosa Luxemburg, Leo Tyszko, and Yu. Karsky-Marchlewski belong to the period of the most acute struggle of the Bolsheviks against the Mensheviks and liquidators, who at that time enjoyed the support of Comrade Trotsky. In this struggle, the Polish Social Democrats rendered considerable aid to the Bolsheviks, who, beginning with 1905, despite certain particular disagreements (especially sharp after the party conference of 1912), on the whole marched together with the Bolsheviks, fighting side by side with them against the "recallists" and against the liquidators. In the theoretical sphere, Rosa Luxemburg rendered invaluable assistance in this struggle; in the organizational respect—Tyszko. The support of R. Luxemburg and Yu. Karsky-Marchlewski was especially important because these comrades—authoritative contributors to the German s.-d. press—were able to a certain extent to counter the attacks on Bolshevism, to which the guiding organs of the German and Austrian s.-d. parties ("Neue Zeit," "Vorwärts," "Kampf") were happy to give space in the form of articles by Martov, Dan, Trotsky and others. The letters printed here, which of course do not at all exhaust the entire correspondence of Vladimir Ilyich with R. Luxemburg and her like-minded comrades, concern precisely questions of cooperation between Bolsheviks and Polish Marxists in the struggle against common factional enemies.

Vladimir Ilyich's letters were obtained through Istpart from the archive of the Communist Party of Poland. Comrade Ya. Yu. Varskaya took active part in the preparation and editing of the letters for publication.

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I.

18.5.09 [Paris].

Werte Genossin!

I sent you yesterday by registered package a copy of my book on p h i l o s o p h y 1) — in memory of our conversation regarding Mach at our last meeting.

If possible, I would very much request that you give a notice about this book for Neue Zeit in the "Verzeichniss der in der Redaktion eingelaufenen Druck-Schriften" 2). If for this it is necessary to fulfill a formality, i.e., to send the book to the editorial office itself (which does not understand Russian), please write me about it and I shall try to send a special copy to the office of N[eue] Z[eit].

You have of course heard about our internal struggle among the B[olsheviks] from Comrade Tyszko. Your article 3) against the recallists and ultimatists is very much liked by everyone: it is only a pity that you write in Russian s o  r a r e l y, preferring the rich s[ocial]-d[emocratic] party of the Germans to the poor s[ocial]-d[emocratic] party of the Russians.

All the best! Regards to Tyszko. I shake your hand.

N. Lenin.

P.S. A note by the editors of N[eue] Z[eit] to the (excellent) article by Rothstein in No. 33 4) suggests to me that Kautsky himself is now not very pleased with his defense of the Independent L[abour] P[arty] in Brussels 5)... Is that so?

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1) The book by V. Ilyiin (V. I. Lenin)—"Materialism and Empirio-Criticism (Critical Remarks on a Reactionary Philosophy)" was published in spring 1909 by the "Zveno" publishing house. See Collected Works, Vol. X.

V. I. LENIN—ROSA LUXEMBURG.

LENIN MISCELLANY.

2) "List of works received in the editorial office." The note appeared in "Neue Zeit" of October 1, 1909 in the section "Bibliography of Socialism."

3) R. Luxemburg's article "Revolutionary Hangover" was published in No. 44 of "Proletarii" of April 8(21), 1909.

4) The article by Comrade F. Rothstein "Die Parteikrise der Independent Labour Party" ("The Party Crisis in the Independent Labour Party") in No. 33 of "Neue Zeit" of May 14, 1909.

5) K. Kautsky at the session of the International Socialist Bureau in Brussels on October 12, 1908 defended the inclusion in the International of the Independent Labour Party, which did not stand on the point of view of class struggle. Lenin, who participated in the Bureau session as a representative of our party, spoke against Kautsky's position. Lenin set forth his dispute with Kautsky on this question in No. 37 of "Proletarii" of October 16(29), 1908 (see Collected Works, Vol. XI, Part I, p. 126).

In the note to Comrade Rothstein's article, the editors of "Neue Zeit," i.e., K. Kautsky, underscored a newspaper report about the entry of certain members of the Labour Party into a coalition ministry.